By: Brian Sullivan Open Camp Conference

Da Vinci’s Journals

• Da Vinci wrote over

13,000 pages of notes

and visual diagrams in his journals

• Da Vinci clustered his

ideas into drawings and observations

• This page is Da Vinci’s observations of the arm

Creativity Must Be Unstructured

• Da Vinci’s writings are

idea journals based

on what inspired him, daily observations

• Ideas were sketched

with notes. No roman

numerals or bulleted lists (aka this preso)

Start from the Inside Out

• Da Vinci scholars

suggest he sketched

his main topic in the

center of the page

• Journal page starts as

pictures without text

Add Text Descriptions to Pictures

• Da Vinci would add

detailed notes and

observations to his illustrative ideas

• Da Vinci did purposely

use different colors of text for his notes

Cover the Entire Page

• Da Vinci’s journal pages

were always full. • Scholarship indicates

that he revisited and

refined ideas

• Da Vinci captured and refreshed ideas

Manage Space in a Scalable Manner

• Da Vinci used an early

form of the Cornell Method of notetaking

• You will frequently see

distinct areas:

1. notetaking 2. quick reference 3. summary footer

Example of Cornell Method Page

• In this example, we see

a complicated idea

for military ladder.

• We see the drawing in a specific area with

notes in another area

and cross-reference in a footer area

Idea Journals are Like Mind Maps

Mind Map of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (courtesy of Mappio)

Da Vinci Foresaw Many Things

• Da Vinci is known as

both an artist and a

scientist.

• He foresaw:

- Helicopter - Tank - Parachute - Solar Power - Cardiovascular disease - Airplanes

Leonardo’s Bridge to Nowhere

• In 1502, Da Vinci

sketched an idea for

bridge for the Sultan

of Istanbul.

• The bridge was never

built because the Sultan’s engineers

deemed it unstable.

Leonardo’s Bridge Built in

• In 2006, Turkey completed the

Leonardo Da Vinci Bridge, which is a scaled-

down version with a 300-feet span and total length of 400 feet.

• Da Vinci was right the classic

keystone arch could be

stretched narrow and

widened without losing integrity.

Imagine the Journals as Blogs

Imagine Blogs as Da Vinci Journals

Imagine Da Vinci’s Indexing

Imagine Da Vinci Storing Pics

Imagine Da Vinci’s Videos

For Da Vinci—Ideas, Then Journal

For You, Ideas, Journal, Then Blog

Bravo, Gratzi, QA